Business Continuity Terms

BCP (Business Continuity Planning) – Planning which identifies the organization’s exposure to internal and external threats and synthesizes hard and soft assets to provide effective prevention and recovery for the organization.

RTO (Recovery Time Objective) – The duration of time and a service level within which a business process must be restored after a disaster (or disruption) in order to avoid unacceptable consequences associated with a break in business continuity.

RPO (Recovery Point Objective) – The point in time to which you must recover data as defined by your organization. This is generally a definition of what an organization determines is an “acceptable loss” in a disaster situation.

BIA (Business Impact Analysis) – An impact analysis results in the differentiation between critical (urgent) and non-critical (non-urgent) organization functions/activities. A function may be considered critical if the implications for stakeholders of damage to the organization resulting are regarded as unacceptable. Perceptions of the acceptability of disruption may be modified by the cost of establishing and maintaining appropriate business or technical recovery solutions. A function may also be considered critical if dictated by law. For each critical (in scope) function, two values are then assigned

DR (Disaster Recovery) – Disaster recovery is the process, policies and procedures related to preparing for recovery or continuation of functions and infrastructure critical to an organization after a natural or human-induced disaster.

ITDR (IT Disaster Recovery) – IT Disaster recovery is a subset of business continuity. While business continuity involves planning for keeping all aspects of a business functioning in the midst of disruptive events, disaster recovery focuses on the IT or technology systems that support business functions.

Data Replication – Key business database or electronic document back up

System Replication – Whole system or key application back up. This helps enable data to be run and recovery point objective to be minimised.

Workplace Recovery – The planning for and delivery of physical workspace including IT infrastructure in the event of a restriction of access or loss of primary workplace.

BS 25999 – The British Standard Institute’s accreditation in the field of Business Continuity Management (BCM).

Achilles – Independent supply chain standard

(CMT) Crisis Management Team – The role of the Crisis Management Team (CMT) within a business is a straightforward management process. It should: